County adopts local ordinance for controlled substance possession

DAYTON-Columbia County Commissioners adopted an ordinance which includes the intent to possess as a requirement and includes a provision for the City, unless the Council decides to draft their own.

Columbia County Prosecutor, Dale Slack presented the Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) on April 12 with a proposed county-wide ordinance for controlled substance possession. This action came as a result of the state law being struck down as being unconstitutional in State vs. Blake in February. The statute did not discriminate between known and unknown possession, but the local ordinance includes the intent to possess as a requirement for being charged.

Slack said state lawmakers are in disagreement over how to move forward and doesn't expect any helpful legislation to remedy the absence of the law. Other city and counties around state are adopting similar resolutions to have a path forward. Slack told the BOCC that this move is a "stop-gap measure until such time the legislature fixes it in a way that will protect community safety and the health of the citizens, I think the commissioners should pass this local ordinance." The commissioners voted unanimously to adopt the ordinance which includes a provision for the City unless the Council decides to draft their own.

The ordinance "includes costs and fines that the court can impose for violations of it that would help cover our expenses in maintaining it and enforcing it," said Slack. "It would also be graduated so that first conviction for it has lower penalties than the second conviction for it. What I anticipate from my office anyway and the enforcement of this statute is that when we catch somebody the first time in possession of drugs, we are going to very strongly steer them towards a treatment program," Slack continued. "They will have a misdemeanor or a gross misdemeanor on their record, but as long as they complete that treatment...hopefully that treatment program will stick, and we won't seem them again. The second one, the penalties for it would go a little bit higher. Again, we would try to steer them into a treatment program...If they don't want to get away from the problem, we're going to have to go the jail route."